Obey My Voice and I will be Your GOD!
It is recorded by THE SPIRIT in Jeremiah chapter 7:
23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be Your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’
Can it get any simpler than that?
24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
If you feel like you are not progressing, consider the above verses. You may not be adequately hearing FATHER’S Voice. The essence of Israel’s problems was that they hearkened not to the Voice of THE LORD.
I have gone off course many times in my life and it necessitated me to stop, repent, and listen to what FATHER wanted to tell me. I needed a course correction, and HE provided it.
Your progress is totally dependent on who and what you listen to and respond to in your daily life. If you have the TV or radio blaring, it will be difficult to hear The Holy Spirit in that still, small Voice. I used to enjoy loud music but now I don’t. I am providing a better environment to hear HIS Voice and obey It.
The one essential requirement to be blessed is to hear and obey HIS Voice. Every writing that I post is a result of being led by The Holy Spirit. I could not write to you and be of any assistance other than hearing His Voice and responding with appropriate Scripture. I am simply not that good at writing without His intervention and direction. After I pray first thing each morning, He provides details of what to write and what to exclude. I benefit first by these writings myself!
Jesus emphasized hearing and obeying when He spoke in John chapter 10:
1 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
2 But he who enters by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep.
3 To Him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear His Voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His Voice.
5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.
7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the Door of the sheep.
8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
9 I am the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have Life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Do you want to follow life and its abundance? You must hear and obey His Voice. Jesus will never lead His sheep astray and they will pay attention to His Voice and no other.
Sermons emphasize John 10:10 but need to qualify the expectation of success by hearing and obeying HIS Voice. Otherwise, they subject themselves to the stranger who steals, kills, and destroys. The sheep will not pay attention to false teachers or anyone who promotes another “gospel”.
27 My sheep hear My Voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
There are three qualifiers of true believers mentioned by Jesus:
They hear His Voice
Jesus knows, recognizes, and acknowledges them
They follow/obey Him